Court Lets Marijuana, Casino License Amendment Sponsors Intervene in Lawsuit Over Abortion Measure

Abortion, , , ,

On Tuesday the state supreme court opted to let sponsors of a marijuana amendment and an amendment to change Arkansas’ casino license laws intervene in a lawsuit over a proposed abortion amendment.

The joint motion to intervene filed by Arkansans for Patient Access and Local Voters In Charge claims that the court’s decision in the lawsuit could affect petition signatures the groups gathered for their respective ballot measures.

The motion says the groups would like to intervene in the lawsuit “for the limited purpose of
addressing whether a sponsor can appoint an agent to fulfill its statutory duties” under Arkansas law.

The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled 4-3 to let the two ballot question committees intervene in the lawsuit and file a brief with the court.

Last month, Arkansans for Limited Government submitted petition signatures to place the Arkansas Abortion Amendment on the ballot. Bringing the amendment up for a vote would require at least 90,704 valid signatures from registered voters.

However, Secretary of State John Thurston disqualified every petition filed to place the abortion measure on the ballot, because the sponsors failed to provide affidavits that state law requires concerning paid petition canvassers.

By law, ballot initiative sponsors must file a statement confirming that each paid canvassers was given a copy of the state’s initiative and referenda handbook as well as an explanation of relevant state laws before he or she solicited petition signatures. The sponsors backing the abortion measure failed to file this specific documentation when they submitted the petitions for the abortion amendment. That prompted the Secretary of State to reject all of the petitions.

Arkansans for Limited Government subsequently filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State Thurston.

The Arkansas Abortion Amendment would change the constitution to prevent the State of Arkansas from restricting abortion during the first five months of pregnancy — which is more extreme than Roe v. Wade and would allow thousands of elective abortions on healthy women and unborn children every year.

The amendment does not contain any medical licensing or health and safety standards for abortion, and it does not require abortions to be performed by a physician or in a licensed medical facility.

It automatically nullifies all state laws that conflict with the amendment — jeopardizing basic abortion regulations like parental-consent and informed-consent requirements.

The measure also contains various exceptions that would permit abortion through all nine months of pregnancy in many cases.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Deadline to File the Notice of Intent to Home School is Thursday

Home School

Thursday is the deadline to file the Notice of Intent to Home School in Arkansas.

By law, home schoolers in Arkansas must file the annual Notice of Intent form with their local public school district on or before August 15. The form simply informs the district superintendent that the family intends to home school in the coming school year. The law also requires home schoolers to provide basic information, such as the grades of their children, when they complete the Notice of Intent.

In the past, attorneys at the Arkansas Department of Human Services have told us firsthand that having a Notice of Intent to Home School on file with the school district is a home schooler’s best defense against accusations of educational neglect or truancy.

If a social worker with an ax to grind against home schooling shows up on your doorstep, a properly filed Notice of Intent form may be all that stands between you and a bad day in court. It may seem like just a piece of paper, but it’s a priceless piece of protection if someone accuses you of neglecting your children.

The 2024-2025 school year’s Notice of Intent form is available for download here. Home schoolers can simply print it, fill it out, and mail it or deliver it to the local public school superintendent’s office.

Home schoolers may also file the Notice of Intent electronically online. More information about how to do that is available here.

Home schoolers who encounter any difficulty completing the Notice of Intent online or on paper can contact the Arkansas Department of Education’s Home School Office at 501-683-3162.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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How Planned Parenthood is Sneaking Into a Small Kansas Border Town: Guest Column

Abortion, , , ,

By Anne Reed, Senior Policy Advisor for Operation Rescue

Above: The facility in Pittsburg that Planned Parenthood may have acquired. (Google Street View, Captured May 2023. Used in accordance with Fair Use).

Pittsburg, Kansas — Documents recently uncovered by the Family Council in Little Rock, Arkansas, revealed that Planned Parenthood Great Plains secretly purchased a building in Pittsburg, Kansas, through a string of property investment limited liability companies, one of which is based in Little Rock. The 990 tax form for Planned Parenthood Great Plains reveals the following connections: 

On April 10, Southeast Kansas Property Investment LLC secured a building permit for the location at 2310 Tucker Terrace in Pittsburg. The description indicated the permit was for a “health center remodel, exam and lab remodel, gutted and turned into the front entrance.”

“It is no surprise that Planned Parenthood is swooping in to guarantee its greedy portion of blood money in Operation Rescue’s home state,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.  

In June, Operation Rescue produced a three-part special report detailing the state’s downward spiral in recent years and months – wildly shifting from a generally pro-life state to a late-term abortion wasteland. Less than two months ago, the Kansas Supreme Court adamantly reaffirmed its total devotion to unfettered abortion.  

“As the battle to save the lives of preborn children intensifies,” said Newman, “Operation Rescue continues to point to Kansas as a desperate warning to other states. Planned Parenthood is clearly capitalizing on the shift in politics, using Kansas as a destination to target innocent preborn children in states where they are protected by law.”

Though Pittsburg is a small town, with a population of just over 20,000, there are numerous reasons that Planned Parenthood would target the area. It is the home of Pittsburg University, a public university with enrollment of over 6,500, and is located only 5 miles from the Missouri state line and under 30 miles from the Oklahoma state line. Both border states are abortion free. 

Planned Parenthood’s most recent annual report indicated it performed 392,715 abortions in the U.S. in the 2021-2022 fiscal year. The ravenous abortion giant killed over 18,000 more babies than in the previous year. As the landscape across the nation shifts, Planned Parenthood strategists seize every perceivable opportunity to kill more babies. 

In 2022, 41% of Kansas abortions were performed on women from Missouri and Oklahoma, the two states lines so incredibly close to Pittsburg. These percentages represent 5,089 babies killed in Kansas from the two neighboring states. 

“Apparently, that’s not enough carnage for the baby killers at Planned Parenthood,” said Newman. “Sadly, so many people of Kansas welcomed this evil into our state when 59% voted against the pro-life Value Them Both constitutional ballot initiative in 2022.”

Pittsburg is in Crawford County, where a lower number (55%) voted against the life-saving initiative. These numbers reveal a significant number of pro-life citizens in the town of Pittsburg. So, while Planned Parenthood executives sought out the location because of its proximity to abortion-free states, they apparently anticipated resistance from pro-life residents. The details were carefully hidden as a result.

“This isn’t the first time the powerful abortion giant has used this type of covert technique to keep people of a community in the dark,” said Newman. “Planned Parenthood officials know pro-lifers can thwart its plans by exercising their First Amendment rights and by exploring possible legal actions. Now, the people of Pittsburg are free to do so.” 

This article was originally published by Operation Rescue, a leading pro-life, Christian activist organization dedicated to exposing abortion abuses, demanding enforcement, saving innocent lives, and building an abortion-free America. The author, Anne Reed, is Senior Policy Advisor for Operation Rescue.

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